Friday, January 7, 2011

This week is another "No Theme" week. So I'm going to write about something I was talking to Livie about earlier this week.

My family has had Pembroke Welsh Corgis since the early '90s. They are great little dogs with big personalities.

Our first Corgi, Foxy (registered name Oakhome Foxy Fancy), was a great girl. She was SO smart, and everyone said she was such a pretty Corgi.

Oakhome Foxy Fancy, circa mid-'90s.

She did AWESOME in obedience classes with me, even earning her AKC Canine Good Citizen award the first time out, even before completing her first basic obedience class. The Canine Good Citizen test, by the way, is to reward dogs and their humans for the dogs' good manners.

Anyway, she had a good, long life with our family, passing away in mid-2006, when Livie was a baby. Needless to say, Livie never met her.

Since she was my favorite dog, Andrew bought me a stuffed animal Corgi that looked just like Foxy. Now that Livie's a little girl and loves playing with stuffed animals, she found my stuffed animal "Foxy" and has claimed it as hers.

Earlier this week as Livie was playing with "Foxy," she was asking me questions about the real Foxy.

So I told her a time from back in the early '90s, when my brothers and I had a funny incident happen with Foxy.

We were at my parents' lake house in Lake Ozark, MO. It was the end of our trip, and we were heading back. My brothers decided to ride back with me and Foxy in my car, leaving my parents to head home alone.

It was approximately a 6 hour drive from the lake house to my parents' house (their regular residence, that is). At some point, about halfway home and around midday, we decided to stop at a McDonald's to use the restrooms and get something to eat.

Well, since Foxy couldn't come in with us, we had to leave her in the car. Right?

As we got out of the car, I told my brothers to use the men's room as I used the ladies' room and we'd meet at the counter to order our lunches (I was going to buy all our food). I'd also order a plain hamburger for Foxy so she could eat the patty, per my mother's instructions, as well as a cup of water, no ice, since she needed something to drink, too. (This only happened on infrequent road trips, by the way.)

I asked my brothers to crack open the windows, so Foxy could get some fresh air. We'd only be gone, what, 10 minutes or so (just to go to the bathroom and get our food), so I wasn't too worried about her.

However, Foxy didn't understand the plan. As the three of us walked away from the car, she jumped up into the back window, looking like she thought we'd never return . . . or maybe, "How dare you leave me alone?!"

For some reason, we found that image to be hilarious, and we couldn't stop laughing about it. I think it was one of those you had to be there moments, but let me tell you, if I remind my youngest brother Alex, he and I still get a laugh out of it.

Anyway, we got back to the car a few minutes later, and there was Foxy, SO excited to see us. We just had to laugh.

So, here's the rest of the story . . . my brothers began to eat their lunches alfresco, right there at the car (we'd parked kinda at the edge of the parking lot, in as shady a spot as possible).

I let Foxy out on her leash so we could go to her "bathroom" (a grassy place near the parking lot). Then we went back to the car so I could feed her her hamburger patty, laying it on the burger wrapper on the ground so she could eat it while I ate my own lunch.

About Me

I'm an Air Force veteran, as is my husband. We loved living in the Southwest and hope to get back there one day.
I occasionally work as a freelance editor and writer, mostly when someone I know needs a proofreader.
My husband and I have one daughter, who thinks she's the "Bossy Boss." The three of us currently live in corn country, in Iowa - "The Hawkeye State." We enjoy going on lots of adventures together.
I'm a former equestrian, and I'd love to get back into it. Maybe this will happen sooner rather than later. Our daughter really wants to ride (and has already taken her first lesson), so there's hope that horses will definitely (and permanently) be back in my life even if I don't get back into it myself. But I'll probably get back into it.
I'm a bibliophile, so it's natural that I love reading. I mostly enjoy Tony Hillerman's novels which are based in the Southwest where I loved living, Clive Cussler adventures, James Patterson's "Alex Cross" series, and Nelson DeMille.
I'm also a graduate student; I'm studying English and Native American Studies at the University of Iowa, where I've recently finished my 4th semester.